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Hello all, I am going to ask the same old question, can I get some help understanding an sd to hd dvr/TiVo conversion? I would appreciate any replys in simple terms. I have been using the search function but I would love to get answers and explanations that I can understand without searching for answers within answers. I haven't studied hd tech until 2 weeks ago. I am very slowly catching on to some of the terminology and acronyms, emphasize slowly.
I just bought a Panasonic 50gt30 plasma tv along with a Sony 580 blue ray player. I purchased from Best Buy and paid the Geek Squad to install them.
The tv will be delivered and installed 12/18/11. Currently I have 2 sd Tivos and 1 Direct tv dvr, model #s;R10, hdvr2 (Tivos) and r16-300 (dvr).
I have decided to get the TiVo thr22 or the hr34, at least I will attempt to get one of these. I do understand that neither of these units are in wide release yet and it appears that you must have at least 4 dvr or receivers to get the 34 with the whole house upgrade. I have not yet placed an upgrade to hd order with Direct tv.
My questions are:
1 When calling Direct tv, what would be the best way to guide the upgrade towards my desired units?
2 If I place the upgrade order and the installer shows up with a unit other than my desired units, can I refuse the install with no costs for the service call, and still be able to make another appointment to hopefully get the desired units?
3 If I purchase my desired units and have Direct tv do the upgrade install, will Direct tv credit my account for the purchase price I paid for the units?
4 Understanding that the 22 and 34 may not be obtainable by 12/18, the date of my tv install, will any of my current units work, without hd of course, with my new 50gt30? If yes, would one of them work better than the other?
5 If I go with the 34 and have Direct tv do a whole house install, will my old, CRT tvs work with the new dvr/tuners in my bedrooms?
If you made it this far through my questions, you probably understand the level of my understanding about HDTV and satalite systems. I truly thank any and all replys in advance.
Brian

4 Understanding that the 22 and 34 may not be obtainable by 12/18, the date of my tv install, will any of my current units work, without hd of course, with my new 50gt30? If yes, would one of them work better than the other?

5 If I go with the 34 and have Direct tv do a whole house install, will my old, CRT tvs work with the new dvr/tuners in my bedrooms?

4. Any of them can be connected to your new tv. I doubt you would notice any difference in picture quality between them.

5. Yes.

The geek squad will likely try to sell you an overpriced HDMI cable and a surge protecter, be prepared with your own from monoprice.com.

All of the HR2x series (HR20, HR21, HR22, HR24) will work fine with your new TV, and all are full HD DVRs. The user interface on these units will be more similar to your R16 than to your Tivo based units. All of these units also support whole-home.

In addition, you can use a mix of DVRs (HR2x series) and non-DVR receivers (H2x series) with whole-home and have access to recordings on your DVRs at all locations. The only thing you won't have with a mix like this is the ability to pause live tv at the H2x locations.

It is my understanding the new THR22 Tivo based DVR will NOT work with whole-home.

I'm not sure why you have limited your choices to the THR22 and HR34, but would encourage you to consider an HD upgrade with the currently available series of DVRs and receivers.

samrs, I did already buy 2 hdmi cables at BB for $130 total. I have not done any research on hdmi cables nor surge protectors. BB call surge protectors , line conditioners. Is that the same thing? Could you get me a link to which surge protector/ line conditioner I should buy, please. I will also be powering a Wii and a low power audio system. I looked at the link you gave me for cables. With my tv being a 3D tv, what cable should I buy for dvr to 3D tv and 3D Blue Ray player to 3D tv? Again, thank you for your help and heads up on the cables and surge protector.

carl6, I really prefer the user interface of the TiVo units when compared to the Direct dvr. TiVo is intuitive where the dvr is a bit of a pain. Also, as old as my TiVo units are, they are still faster than the dvr. As for limiting my choices to the thr22 and 34, I have waited this long to upgrade to hd, I want to get the best possible units through my upgrade as I will probably keep them for a long time. You mention upgrading to "ud". Could you elaborate slightly on this, please. I do appreciate both of your help, patience and suggestions. Please, keep it coming.

Wow. Just, wow. I bought 5 HDMI cables from Roku for $50 and they work perfectly. BB sure does like to fleece people on cables.

I wouldn't take their word that a line conditioner is a surge protector. Make them show you what it is before you sign off on it. I've never let Geek Squad do squat at my house so I'm not sure what they try to pass off, though it likely is a surge device.

carl6, I really prefer the user interface of the TiVo units when compared to the Direct dvr. ... Also, as old as my TiVo units are, they are still faster than the dvr. As for limiting my choices to the thr22 and 34, I have waited this long to upgrade to hd, I want to get the best possible units through my upgrade as I will probably keep them for a long time. You mention upgrading to "ud". ..

"UD" was a typo, sorry. Meant "HD" (High Def).

I appreciate your comments on the Tivo interface. However keep in mind the HR34 will have the same basic user interface as the HR2x series. As to speed, the new HD GUI that has begun public release is much faster than the previous GUI (on the HR2x series). Also, you can't really generalize the R16 to any of the HR units. They use a totally different operating system and the R16 software was developed outside of DirecTV whereas the HR software is entirely in-house. On the surface, they both have a similar appearance but they are two completely different things under the surface.

I don't want to re-create the very lengthy Tivo-DirecTV debate in this thread, but I will say that most users who switched over (a) complained loudly at the start due to the differences, and ( fairly rapidly adjusted and find the DirecTV UI acceptable. Because you have both interfaces, you should already be at least somewhat familiar with the DirecTV approach, making the adjustment even easier. Please don't misinterpret my comments to say one (either) is better, just that they are different but once you adjust to the differences most people find either acceptable.

Because you were considering the HR34, I felt perhaps the HR series UI would be acceptable. I have not used an HR34, but with what I know about it, I personally prefer multiple separate DVRs to one consolidated unit. The major difference is that the HR34 is a single point of failure, whereas with two or more individual DVRs you have redundancy.

Regardless, I hope you find the system upgrade you are looking for. I know you will enjoy HD.

BB has hdmi cables for as much as $500 per cable. The claim is more silver= lower resistance= better audio. They do state the video is the same on all cables. So, am I understanding y'all right that I can buy the cheapest cables and still have acceptable audio. I am not an audiophile by any means, but I want to buy quality to buy once.
For the line conditioner, BB says they stabilize the voltage to reduce tv temperature.
Again, thanks for the help everyone, please, keep it coming.

I'll tell you I've had $5 HDMI cables and $60 ones. Both performed identically. As a matter of fact the $5 one is connecting a 3d Blu-ray player to a 3d TV and has no problem with 3d content despite the requirement for a "high speed HDMI cable."

Opinions expressed by me are my own and do not necessarily reflect
those of DBSTalk.com, DIRECTV, DISH, The Signal Group, or any other company.

BB has hdmi cables for as much as $500 per cable. The claim is more silver= lower resistance= better audio.

I have no technical knowledge to dispute that claim. However, I do have cheap-o HDMI cables, and I have expensive HDMI cables. There is no difference that I can detect in video OR audio quality through my Dolby 5.1 sound system.

I've not done a side-by-side test in a year, but my cheap cables did the same job as my expensive one.

That's great to hear, I'll save $110 on cables then. I'll go to Home Depot today.
I've still got 3 of my original questions that I would appreciate more input on. Here they are again;
1 When calling Direct tv, what would be the best way to guide the upgrade towards my desired units?
2 If I place the upgrade order and the installer shows up with a unit other than my desired units, can I refuse the install with no costs for the service call, and still be able to make another appointment to hopefully get the desired units?
3 If I purchase my desired units and have Direct tv do the upgrade install, will Direct tv credit my account for the purchase price I paid for the units?

Can someone recommend a surge protector or should I just buy the cheap one at Home Depot?

1 When calling Direct tv, what would be the best way to guide the upgrade towards my desired units?

You really can't. I expect you will be able to specify HR34 and/or the HD Tivo unit once they become available. Other than that, the CSR's who take your order have no way of specifying any given model. Ordering from a third party vendor, such as Solid Signal, will get you a specific model, however there is no guarantee you can get compensation from DIRECTV for that.

2 If I place the upgrade order and the installer shows up with a unit other than my desired units, can I refuse the install with no costs for the service call, and still be able to make another appointment to hopefully get the desired units?

You can certainly do this, however the installer gets paid nothing for his time or miles unless he installs and activates units. So you are basically screwing the installer if you do this. That is unfortunate but it is how the system works.

3 If I purchase my desired units and have Direct tv do the upgrade install, will Direct tv credit my account for the purchase price I paid for the units?

Only DIRECTV can answer that question for you. Call and talk to them once you have gathered all the information you are able to and feel you are prepared to make that call.

Can someone recommend a surge protector or should I just buy the cheap one at Home Depot?

I would recommend a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) as opposed to a surge protector. That will tide you over through short power interruptions as well as provide surge protection. Get a unit that is rated high enough for all of the equipment you will plug into it.

I really appreciate all of the help.
The answers where all taken to heart. FYI, I only asked about refusing the install because I read that others recommended doing so. I would never want to jerk Direct tv nor the installer around. I will be waiting until both units are in national release. I have been researching surge protectors, ups units, and power management units. I opened a whole bunch more questions.

Just to simplify it, what are all of you using on your home theaters for surge protection?
Thanks again.

Stuart, do you use the ups only for power failure or does it have other benifits?

I'm not Stuart, but ..

We get occasional power "blips" here that drop our power out for a second or two. They're especially common in the summer thunderstorm season. Just about any loss of power is enough to send a receiver into reboot mode, and it will be 10 minutes or so until you can watch anything. If you happen to be recording anything at the time, you're S.O.L. too.

My UPS is primarily for getting me through these short irritating outages. Even though my TV may shut down, I can turn it right back on if I'm home (I have it on a conditioning outlet only, not on a power backup outlet, to save as much battery power for the DirecTV as possible) but the recording can continue at least until the battery runs down. In nearly all my cases, the power is restored in a few minutes and the recorder never misses a beat.

As side benefits, though, you do get good surge protection and voltage regulation for everything connected to the UPS.

I have APC UPS units which also include surge protection. I don't think you would need an additional surge protector, it would pretty much be overkill.

In fact, preceding a surge protector with another surge protector will prevent the 2nd one in line from working properly. A well designed UPS with surge protection depends on the fast attack of a surge pulse to switch away the line as soon as possible. If you precede it with another surge protector, the wave form of the offending pulse "flattens out" and it is harder for the "good" surge protector and electronics in the UPS to detect a line fault condition.

Bottom line: always plug a UPS directly into the AC outlet. No extension cords, no surge bars...nada...right into the outlet.